RSC Confirms Autumn/Winter Season
Date: 8 September 1998
The Royal Shakespeare Company's 1998/99 Autumn/Winter season will feature six new productions, including the British premiere of a new play by Irish playwright Brian Friel, a revival of a children's classic, three staple Shakespeare offerings and a Sheridan satire never before performed by the RSC.
Friel - whose plays include Dancing at Lughnasa, Translations, Philadelphia Here I Come! and, most recently, Give Me Your Answer, Do! - takes on Ivan Turgenev in A Month in the Country, which runs at Stratford's Swan Theatre from 15 December 1998 to 20 February 1999 (previews from 25 November 1998). Natalya Petrovna seems to have everything - wealth, beauty, land, servants and a loving husband. Then a young student arrives as a holiday tutor for her son and, over a month in the country, her life is turned upside down as she wrestles with her sexual desires. RSC principal associate director Michael Attenborough directs.
Richard Brinsley Sheridan's 18th-century satire The School for Scandal is delivered to the RSC care of Cheek by Jowl founders, director Declan Donnellan and designer Nick Ormerod. Though their internationally renowned touring company - whose works include acclaimed productions of As You Like It and the recent Much Ado About Nothing - may have disbanded, the duo are still very much intact, tackling the biting social comedy which unravels at Lady Sneerwell's townhouse. This is the team's first time working with the RSC, appropriately staging a play never before performed by the company. The School for Scandal opens at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford on 14 October 1998 (previews from 9 October) before transferring to London's Barbican Theatre 29 October to 21 November 1998.
RSC artistic director Adrian Noble directs Adrian Mitchell's dramatisation of the children's fantasy classic The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, based on the opening book of C.S. Lewis' renowned Chronicles of Narnia. The production runs 1 December 1998 to 27 February 1999 (previews from 24 November 1998) at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre.
Robert Lindsay makes his RSC debut as the lead in Shakespeare's psychological thriller Richard III. Well-known for his television and film roles, Lindsay has also had an extensive stage career, including his Tony and Olivier Award-winning role in Me and My Girl. Elijah Moshinsky directs. His credits include Shadowlands, Old Wicked Songs and, for the RSC, Lord of the Flies.
Other new Shakespeare productions this season include Troilus and Cressida, directed by Michael Boyd, and The Winter's Tale, directed by Gregory Doran. Troilus and Cressida opens in London at the Barbican Pit on 5 November 1998 (previews from 28 October) before transferring on 8 December 1998 to Stratford's Swan Theatre where it continues until 20 February 1999. The Winter's Tale runs 16 December 1998 to 26 February 1999 (previews from 10 December 1998) at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre.
Aside from Troilus and Cressida and The School for Scandal, the rest of the RSC's London Autumn/Winter season features transfers from the last Stratford season. These include The Merchant of Venice, The Tempest, Measure for Measure, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Shadows and Bad Weather.
Related Content
